Posted 1 year ago on Jan. 13, 2014, 5:27 p.m. EST by GirlFriday
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One of the issues that I have encountered is Russia's Foreign Agents Law and it is described as a great evil. If your (NGO) receives funding from outside sources AND it is used politically then you have to register. It is currently being treated as this big human rights issue.

The NGOs refused to register. There were raids. Most of those NGOs went to court and won.

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'The Freedom House' - Board of Trustees is self-described as "composed of leading Democrats, Republicans, and independents; business and labor leaders; former senior government officials; scholars; writers; and journalists."

As an important aside : ''The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was enacted in 1938. FARA is a disclosure statute that requires persons acting as agents of foreign principals in a political or quasi-political capacity to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities.'' - from the fara.gov link.

''This is the way asymmetric politics works for the Israel Lobby. It is the dynamic that puts our country in opposition to most of the world with respect to International Law and peace in the Middle East. And it may yet succeed in getting us into a war with Iran.''

The NGOs have been calling for accountability and transparency in the management of the country’s affairs.
They have been receiving a lot of money from mostly foreign donors to fund programmes aimed at holding the government to account.
Surprisingly when the same was demanded from them they raised a lot of dust, accusing the government of ill-will.
Right now some of the NGOs have refused to register with the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
It is difficult to understand why the NGOs are not comfortable with the government knowing the sources of their funding.

This is something that I keep finding. The charter, mission or constitution stipulates what the goal is and in order for the NGOs to fulfill their aims it has no choice but to interfere in the politics.